Regulating apparatus for drying sheets of paper, cloth, and the like.



G. STIGKLE.

REGULATING APPARATUS FOR DRYING SHEETS OF PAPER, CLOTH, AND THE LIKE. APPLICATION FILED JUNE 4, 1914.

STATES PATEN T QFFICE.

COLE STICKLE, OF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA.

BE(5:Ul'aA'll'Ilil'G APPARATUS FOR DRYING SHEETS OF PAPER, CLOTH, AND THE LIKE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 9, 1915.

Application filed June 4, 1914. Serial No. 843,114.

To all 10h am it may concern:

Be it known that I, COLE STIcKLn, a citizen of the United States, anda resident of Indianapolis, county. of Marion, and State of Indiana, have invented a certain new and useful Regulating Apparatus for Drying Sheets of Paper, Cloth, and the like; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which like letters refer to like parts.

The object of this invention is to improve the means for controlling automatically the steam heat for drying sheets of paper, cloth or the like by the temperature of the sheets of paper, cloth or the like.

Heretofore various devices have been employed to regulate the heat, but they have sought to doso in more or less indirect methods, such as regulating the drying heat acco"d?ng to the moisture in the sheet or the thickness of the sheet or other characteristic of the sheet independent of the temperature thereof.

The chief feature of this invention consists in making the means for controlling the temperature of drying apparatus automatically dependent upon the temperature of the sheet of paper or cloth being dried. This is accomplished in the form of the invention herein presented in the drawings, by a thermostat located immediately over and adjacent to the sheet of paper, cloth or the like, and preferably at a point over or adjacent a drying cylinder and preferably the last drying cylinder in the machine, and utilizing said thermostat through intermediate electrical apparatus for regulating the reduction of steam pressure in the drying apparatus; and while, theoretically, in said arrangement any type of steam pressure reducing mechanism may be employed, yet from my experience, only steam pressure reducing mechanism substantially like that shown in the drawings herein is practical for the purposes here set forth.

The full nature of the invention will be understood from the accompanying drawing and the following description and claims.

The drawing is a side elevation of a portion of a paper making machine and a steam pressure reducing apparatus assooiated therewith and the electrical connection between said apparatus and thermostat being shown in diagram, parts being also broken away.

While the invention is suitable in connection with cloth making or drying machines, as Well as in paper making and drying machines, the latter is shown in the drawings for the purpose of explaining the invention. The rear end of a paper making machine is shown having a frame 10 and a series of drying cylinders 11 of usual type over which the sheet of paper 12 passes while being dried and formed. A common type of machine is herein shown, having a steam header 15 from which pipes 16 lead into the various cylinders for heating the same and associated therewith are steam traps 17 from which pipes 18 lead for conveying condensation Water down to a waste pipe 19.

The purpose of this invention is to control the steam supply to the drying cylinders and, therefore, through the steam header 15 by means directly influenced by the temperature of the sheet of paper. To that end a thermostatic construction 20 is secured to the frame 10 above the last drying cylinder 11 and immediately over and adjacent to the sheet of paper 12 as it passes over said drying cylinder. From this thermostat lines 21, 22 and 23 lead to any suitable mechanism for reducing or controlling the steam pressure in the header 15 in such manner as to maintain a substantially uniform drying temperature for the sheet of paper. If the temperature of the sheet of paper becomes too low, through the thermostatic control ling means, the steam pressure in the header 15 will be increased. On the other hand, if the temperature of the sheet of paper is excessive, through said means, the steam pressure in the header 15 will be correspond ingly diminished. The control, therefore, of the steam supply to the drying cylinders is immediately and directly controlled by the temperature of the sheet of paper, although it is indirectly influenced by the drying cylinder adjacent which the thermostat is located.

While theoretically the invention is not limited to any particular means controlled by a thermostat for regulating the steam pressure in the drying cylinders, there is shown in the drawings herein a steam supply pipe 25 leading from some source of steam to a reducing valve 26 which reduces the steam pressure passing through a pipe 27 and leads to the header 15. Thus if the steam pressure in pipe 25 is 125 pounds, and it is desired that the pressure in the header 15 be only 5 pounds, this reduction is accomplished through the valve 26 and said valve is set by the adjustment of a weight 28 on a lever 29 fulcrumed between its ends to an arm 30 depending from the upper diaphragm 31. Said lever on one side of its fulcrum is connected by the means 32 to the upper diaphragmand on the other side of its fulcrum by means 33 with the lower dia phragm 34, which lower diaphragm is then forced by the steam pressure coming through a by-pass 35. The upper diaphragm 31 is operatirely connected by suitable means, not shown, with the. reducing valve; The by-pass 35 leads from the steam supply pipe 25 and has a pet cock 36 near the lower diaphragm adjusted to let the steam slowly escape from said diaphragm and the portion of the by-pass 35 between said pet-cock and 'a thermostatically contrclled valve 37. This valve 37 is located in the by-pass 35 and is held closed normally by aweighted lever 38, but said valve is relieved from the full influence of said weighted lever and opened by electrical mechanism controlled by the thermostat.

Normally the reduction valve 26 is open sufliciently to reduce the steam pressure to the desired normal pressure in the header 15, say five pounds. If the heat of the sheet becrmes excessive, the valve 37 is opened by the thermostat and steam permitted to pass in through the by-pass 35 and through the diaphragm and intermediate connection the reduction'valve is closed. If the heat of the sheet of paper becomes insuflicient, said valve 37 will be closed through the influence of the thermostat.

The invention claimed is:

1. The combination of a machine having steam supplied apparatus for drying a sheet of paper, cloth or the like, and means controlled by the temperature of said sheet for regulating the steam pressure in the drying apparatus.

2. The combination of a machine having steam supplied apparatus for drying a sheet of paper, cloth or the like, and means controlled by a thermostat located adjacent said sheet of papentor regulating the steam pressure in the drylng apparatus.

3. The combination of a machine having steam supplied apparatus for drying a sheet of paper, cloth or the like, a thermostat located adjacent said sheet of paper, cloth or the like, and. means controlled by said thermostat for shutting off and turning on the steam supply to said drying apparatus.

4. A machine for drying a sheet of paper, cloth .or the like including aframe and drying cylinders over which the sheet of paper. cloth or the likepasses, means for supplying steam to said drying cylinders, a thermostat secured to the frame over one of said drying cylinders and adjacent to the sheet of paper, cloth or the like as it passes over said cylinder, and means controlled by the thermostat for regulating the supply of steam to said cylinders.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto affixed my signature .in the presence of the witnesses herein named.

J. H. WELLS, R. G. Looxwoon. 

